


You've Got Stars, They're In Your Eyes

by Tea__Bee



Series: Cuddle Prompts [9]
Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Cuddling, Jester Really Wants To Meddle, M/M, Mutual Pining, Stargazing, The Gentleman(mentioned), Understanding, widomauk
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-19
Updated: 2019-03-19
Packaged: 2019-11-24 09:36:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,070
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18163499
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tea__Bee/pseuds/Tea__Bee
Summary: Prompt #10: Under The StarsM9 stops on their way to Zadash, and the skies are beautifully clear.Title from What A Feeling by One Direction





	You've Got Stars, They're In Your Eyes

Deciding to stop for the evening and take advantage of the decent weather, the Mighty Nein set up their tents and settled in for the night about half a day's journey from Zadash.

Fjord started a fire and set about cooking some food for the group, Beau nitpicking him and laughing along when he joked about just roasting her instead.

Molly sat by the campfire with Yasha, surrounded by the laughter of his friends, everyone a bit too excited to be getting back into an actual city the next day to fall asleep right away.

Jester was helping Caleb and Nott set up their tent last, casting glances between Molly sitting by the fire and Caleb concentrating on setting up the tent poles properly, before Nott knocked her in the knee as she passed, giving her a stern look of warning to remind her not to meddle. Jester set the tent up quickly, taking the poles from Caleb's hands with a huff and finishing up, pouting and stomping off to the fire to sit with Fjord and Beau as they talked about what they'd do after they checked in with The Gentleman when they arrived. She cheered up quickly when the conversation turned to shopping, completely ignoring Nott and Caleb when they came to sit with the rest of the group.

Caleb was still thinking about what Nott had said, that morning a few days ago in the back of the cart. He had tried to separate his own doubts from his memories, and he was beginning to believe she might be right. Maybe Molly did care for him, but was it the way he wanted him too? Was he enough? He needed more time to think, and he was worried that Molly would move on. He snuck a glance at the tiefling, engaged in conversation with Yasha, and it almost seemed he could feel Caleb's glance, because not two seconds after Caleb looked at him, he looked up to meet his eyes. He broke into a grin and patted the ground next to him in invitation.

“Come over here, Caleb, I'm just speculating with Yasha about what kind of crazy thing The Gentleman will send us off to do when we get to Zadash.”

Yasha rolled her eyes and got up to get food, Nott following behind her, leaving Caleb alone with a hopeful Molly looking up at him, waiting for him to sit down. Resigned, he sat with Molly, keeping enough distance between them to not be awkwardly close, but not enough to be glaringly obvious that's what he was doing.

“So what do you think? What kind of trouble do you think we'll get into for The Gentleman this time?” Molly prompted Caleb.

“Ah, I do not know. He is unpredictable, for sure,” Caleb said, trailing off when he found he was unsure what else to contribute. They both fell silent, watching the fire and listening to their friends chatter and laugh, oblivious to the tension in the air between them.

The sky was clear and as the sun started to set, the stars emerged, glimmering in the night. Jester and Nott and Yasha ended up laying on their backs looking up at the stars, Jester pointing out made up constellations that she thought looked like anything that came to her mind, from candy, to swords, to dicks in the sky. Fjord and Beau excused themselves, starting to wind down after another long day on the road, heading to their tents.

Caleb and Molly sat, eating their meals in silence, unsure of where they stood with each other, watching Frumpkin bat at bugs that were attracted to the firelight. Occasionally, the fey cat would miss so spectacularly that he would do a flip or land in a silly way, and Molly or Caleb would start to chuckle and turn to the other, but then nerves would set in and they'd look away again. Molly looked at Caleb for a moment, his hair reflecting the glowing fire, a soft breeze causing strands to shift or his scarf to billow for a moment. He wanted to say something, but nothing came to mind that he didn't think would push Caleb away. He _wanted_ to reach out, to close the, admittedly small, but still vastly annoying distance between them. Just to be nearer to him, to hold his hand again. He looked down at his hands in his lap before rubbing one across his face. They'd properly held hands, what, once? But Molly had _loved_ it. Caleb's hands were warm, his fingers long and a bit calloused, and his nails were bitten short. His hands were perfect. Molly was a little obsessed with his hands now, if he was being honest. He sighed and looked over to Yasha, who had Jester and Nott curled up at her sides, all three of them asleep.

Molly and Caleb were alone together for the first time in a while, and Molly had no idea what to say.

“Oh, it looks like everyone is asleep, _ja_?” Caleb said, pulling Molly out of his own thoughts to realize he had actually gone to get more food and come back, still carefully sitting the same distance away from Molly that he had established before.

“ _Ja_ ,” Molly said back, laughing when Caleb wrinkled his nose at him. “Yeah, looks like it's… just us.”

Caleb nodded, trying to think of something, anything to talk about besides the obvious awkwardness in the air. “The girls seemed to be having fun looking at the, ah, at the stars.”

“Yeah, Jester was making dicks out of everything, as always,” he chuckled and Caleb smiled, looking up at the inky sky. “I don't know though, I've always enjoyed looking up at the stars. It reminds me… that I'm lucky, that I'm here, and not… well,” Molly looked at Caleb in the firelight and grimaced, patting the dirt. “You know.” Caleb nodded at him, frowning. “I've heard people say the stars have pictures in them, and stories, but I never see them right, it seems.”

“Well, there's a few that I know the names of, in Zemnian anyway. This one,” he traced one, making the shape of a cloud. “Is _Die Sturmwolke,_ and next to that is _Der Beschützer_ ,” he gestured to a smaller one, a circle of stars with two brighter ones in the middle, near it. Then he pointed up at a swirl of eight stars. “That is _Der Scharlatan_. I don't really know what someone would call then if they didn't grow up where I did, they probably have many names in different places,” he finished, dropping his hand back at his side.

“I don't know what any of them mean, but they're nice…” Molly listened to Caleb's voice softly telling him the names, the most he'd spoken to him in days.

Caleb pointed up in the middle of the three constellations he'd just showed Molly, tracing two lines of stars that mirrored each other, “Do you see these? These five here, that mirror and face these five?”

“Sort of, yeah,” Molly said, leaning his head closer to Caleb to share his line of vision without touching him and watching him trace the glimmering stars for him.

“That one is… my favorite. When I was a child, I used to sneak out at night to look at the stars, to imagine how much bigger the world was outside my home. One night, my _mutter_ caught me, sitting out on the field near our home, looking at this constellation. There was a, ah, a legend that went with it, she told me. It is called _Der Barde Und Der Buchhändler_ ,” Caleb swallowed to clear his dry throat.

“Will you tell me the story?” Molly asked, softly, scooting his whole body closer to Caleb and looking up at the sky, stars reflecting in his upturned eyes and moonlight washing over his face, even as the flickering light of the fire changed the shadows, constantly sharpening his cheekbones or softening his jawline. He looked beautiful, and Caleb could not deny him anything.

“It translates to the Bard and the Bookseller, essentially.” He murmured, sitting up straighter and tearing his eyes away from Molly's face so he could speak. “It's a story about… love, and, and patience.” He saw Molly look at him, brow furrowed for a moment before he smiled softly. Molly leaned his shoulder against Caleb's, looking back up at the stars with him, the back of his hand brushing Caleb's. It was the first they'd touched in days and Caleb could feel his skin almost buzzing with it. He took a breath to steady himself and continued. “The bard set up to play and sing in the square outside the bookseller's shop nearly every day. They would pass in the mornings when the bookseller was opening up shop, and at night, they would sit in the square and talk underneath the stars. They became close, and soon… the bookseller realized they were falling for the bard, and the bard realized they felt the same, but… both thought it would be impossible for the other to reciprocate. The bookseller had trouble, ah, with trust, with believing that they were worthy of someone caring for them, especially in th-that way, and the bard, they did not want to push the shy bookseller, they knew they would need time,” Caleb paused, wanting desperately to look at Molly now, to see if he understood the real reason he wanted to tell him this story. But he couldn't bring himself to. “M-my mama said… that the stars watched them fall in love, watched them struggle to come together, watched the bard wait and wait, and watched the bookseller finally come to the bard with their heart open. The stars, she said, became so enamored with their story and their love, that after the two had lived a long, happy life together, the stars invited them to spend eternity loving each other as the constellation we now see in the sky.” As Caleb finished the legend, a soft silence settled over the two men, both looking up at the stars that shimmered light down onto them.

“I like that story. It's very nice.” Molly said quietly, not wanting to disturb the moment. “It sounds like… I mean, _I'd_ certainly say that… the bookseller was worth waiting for, that it was worth it to the bard to let the bookseller set whatever pace they were comfortable with,” Molly turned his head to gauge Caleb's reaction in the dark, wondering if he'd get his real meaning.

Caleb closed his eyes, feeling relieved. “ _Ja,_ I think they were probably, ah… very happy that the bard thought so.” He felt Molly's tail swaying in the grass, lightly brushing his ankle a few times in the silence of the night. He took a deep breath, then, “Molly?”

Molly hesitated, just slightly. “Yes, Caleb?” He held his breath, waiting.

“I'm, ah, I'm sor-”

“No!” Molly's hand flew out, reaching for Caleb's, fumbling with it, and pulling it to his chest for a moment, silencing him. “We're fine, Caleb,” he squeezed the man's hand. “Everything is fine. You have nothing to apologize for,” he gestured up to the sky, to the constellation above them. “There's plenty of time.” He heard Caleb let out a breath.

Caleb could feel tears pricking at his eyes at the words, at being given the time to pursue this at his own pace, at how _good_ Molly was at understanding what he needed. He pulled his hand from Molly's, barely registering the small, disappointed and slightly worried “oh” Molly let out, before curling into Molly's side, laying his head softly on his shoulder and putting his other hand on Molly's chest, feeling his heartbeat.

Molly froze for only a moment in surprise before smiling, wrapping his arm around Caleb's shoulders, and curling his fingers into his long red hair. He let out a relieved sigh, placing his free hand on top of Caleb's on his chest and wrapping his tail around Caleb's ankle.

There's plenty of time.

Unbeknownst to the two of them, Nott shuffled in her sleep and woke up, peering over to check on Caleb. Seeing him cuddled up to Molly, and Molly running his fingers through his hair, and the soft smile on Molly's face in the starlight, Nott smiled and went back to sleep, satisfied.

**Author's Note:**

> First of all, I gotta thank N(WrongDecision here, bruhchantite on Tumblr) for the amazing art they did for this! I was having trouble having motivation to finish it with everything else going on, but the ART just blew me away. I cried, I've never had someone make art based off my writing before.
> 
> Okay now to stop crying. So I made up the constellation Caleb talks about and it made me so happy(I'm gonna write an au based on it later, so keep an eye out!). N also helped me with my Zemnian, so you can thank them for that, and for helping me name the other three constellations that watch over The Bard and The Bookseller.
> 
> Die Sturmwolke = The Stormcloud  
> Der Beschützer = The Protector  
> Der Scharlatan = The Trickster
> 
> Sound familiar? Like some characters we know who are also rooting for Molly and Caleb?
> 
> We're getting so much closer to them being Happy and I can't wait!
> 
> Let me know what you thought!!
> 
> J


End file.
